Police briefs

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Bystanders who had been stalled in their vehicles watch as Mike Topol-ski, right, of Verizon cuts a downed utility line which had stopped traffic on Route 235 south of Chancellor's Run Road on Friday after a vehicle crashed into the pole. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Two bicyclists, motorist hurt in crash with buggies

A van struck two bicycles and a horse-drawn buggy hauling a pair of canoes Sunday morning in Leonardtown, St. Mary's sheriff's deputies report, injuring the van's driver and the two bicyclists.

The buggy struck another horse-drawn buggy lined up with other ones stopped in the southbound lane of Hollywood Road shortly before 7 a.m. that day, near the highway's intersection with Route 5, sheriff's deputies report.

All three of the people injured in the collision initially were taken to nearby St. Mary's Hospital. One of the bicyclists, identified by county officials as 17-year-old Kevin Martin of Leonardtown, later was flown by a helicopter crew to the Washington Hospital Center, where he was listed the next day in fair condition.

Benjamin Allen, a 19-year-old Prince Frederick motorist driving the 2001 Ford Windstar, and the other bicyclist, identified by county officials as 17-year-old Charity Horst of Mechanicsville, were treated at the hospital in Leonardtown and released.

Three Mechanicsville teenagers riding in the buggy towing the canoes were not injured, sheriff's deputies report, and neither were the four teenagers riding in the other buggy involved in the crash.

Woman jailed on assault charge

A judge ordered Monday that a Mechanicsville woman remain jailed in lieu of $300,000 bond on charging papers alleging she tried on Saturday to hit her husband with a car.

Cheryl Jeannette Moore, 47, was charged with attempted first-degree assault after the 9:30 a.m. incident outside the couple's residence on Hill Top Court. Michael Archie Moore told police that his wife slapped and kicked him when he refused to take out a second mortgage to help support her grandmother in Florida, according to a statement of probable cause. He left the house and was walking away when his wife got in the car and began to follow him.

"She continued … demanding he get into the vehicle and go to the bank and take out a second mortgage. He still refused, at which time Mrs. Moore attempt[ed] to hit Mr. Moore with the car," St. Mary's sheriff's deputy M.D. Rodgers wrote in the charging document. Police found the husband at the entrance to the roadway and determined that he had no noticeable injuries.

JOHN WHARTON